


Love Potion

by aliceylain



Category: Shoujo Kakumei Utena | Revolutionary Girl Utena
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-12
Updated: 2012-11-12
Packaged: 2017-11-18 11:44:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,710
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/560706
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aliceylain/pseuds/aliceylain
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>And yet, it was Takatsuki Shiori who closed the door behind her and leaned back against it. It was Shiori who turned the lock, her school uniform rumpled and her hair covering her eyes. And it was Shiori who got straight to the point and said, "I need a love potion."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Love Potion

**Author's Note:**

> I've had this in my drafts folder for over a year. I'm still not entirely pleased with it but figured it was about time I just posted it anyways and lived with the rampant imperfection of what I was trying to say.

Every afternoon, rain or shine, Himemiya Anthy took care of the roses in the Ohtori greenhouse. Some (Utena and Miki) thought it was out of kindness and concern for the roses that she did so. Others (Juri and Touga) thought it was to escape the generally callous Ohtori student body. And the remaining people (Saionji and Nanami) didn’t think about the reason at all, so involved in their own thoughts that the motivations of others never even crossed their minds. Of course, none of those reasons were the real reason, which was to help make her look innocent. Gardeners didn't scheme, gardeners weren't cruel, gardeners didn't have ulterior motives. Taking care of the roses made her look kind and thoughtful.

(That she enjoyed taking care of the roses was just a bonus.)

The door to the greenhouse opened behind her and Anthy turned around gracefully to greet Utena, Touga, Saionji, Miki, anyone who wasn’t Takatsuki Shiori. And yet, it was Takatsuki Shiori who closed the door behind her and leaned back against it. It was Shiori who turned the lock, her school uniform rumpled and her hair covering her eyes. And it was Shiori who got straight to the point and said, "I need a love potion."

Anthy carefully put down her pruning shears and folded her hands in front of her. "I'm sorry, Takatsuki-san, could you repeat that?"

Shiori smiled thinly. "Don't act coy. You couldn't do half of what you do if you didn't have some type of magical power."

While that was absolutely true, it wasn't something Anthy would just admit to. "I don’t understand."

"Do you have ears? A brain? I need a love potion. I need the strongest love potion you can make. I want the person who takes it to be absolutely sick over me," Shiori said, taking a step forward, her smile twisting into a jagged bitter line. "You're familiar with love potions, aren't you, Anthy? You must be using them yourself, to have so many people _panting_ over you."

Love potions. Of course. It didn't happen often in this age, but in past ages it had been a common request from duelists. But it was always girl duelists asking her for love potions, never boys. Good girls, cruel girls, brave girls, shy girls, girls of every type and stripe but never any boys. After all, boys didn't have to trick others into doing what they wanted, boys could make things happen on their own. It's the boy who carves the course of the story. It's the girl who waits and manipulates and begs the witch for help. And it's the witch who tries to trick everyone because she hates the world and the world hates her right back.

"Aren't you paying attention to me?" Shiori demanded.

"Takatsuki-san, love potions don't exist," Anthy said, turning her focus back to the girl in front of her. "I think you're confused."

"Don't pull that act with me, Himemiya Anthy," Shiori said, walking slowly forward. "You're not very good at it. You never put any emotion into it. When you lie, you've got to _feel_ it or else it looks like you're just reading words from a boring script."

"I'm sorry, Takatsuki-san."

"Don't apologize either! Just give me what I want!"

They were only a foot apart now. Anthy looked at Shiori, her face twitching with desperation. The girl wanted her to be afraid of her, to give up her secrets with little struggle. Shiori had no idea how deep the secrets went. Shiori had no idea just how little of a threat she was to Anthy. "I can’t make you a love potion," Anthy said again, each word a calm drop into Shiori's turbulent bucket.

Shiori's mouth twisted into a snarl and her hand lashed out. Anthy's face whipped to the side, her glasses flying off and landing with a thin clatter on the greenhouse floor. "You're not fooling anyone! I know you've bewitched them! Tell me your secret! Give it to me!"

With her glasses off, the world was sharpened. Her cheek stung but she ignored it, bringing her head around to look Shiori in the eye. Anthy read every covetous, fearful, and cruel thought crawling across Shiori's face. Anthy saw why Shiori wanted the potion and even the why behind that. It was such a shame. Some girls were filled to the brim with confidence and other girls needed to steal confidence from others to be even half-full.

It was easier to make bad decisions with her glasses off. She dropped her mask, discarded the Rose Bride, and flung away the pretense.

"You say you want me to make you a love potion, as if love could be stuffed into a bottle and given to you for your revenge."

Glaring, Shiori opened her mouth to give more commands. Anthy cut her off neatly, severing all narrative strings that she may have held.

"I'll tell you what I told those fools all those years ago, what I've told every girl since forever. I can't make anyone fall in love with you. I can make the stars swirl and dip, I can wear dresses made of wind, I can imprison princes and scientists. I can command animals to obey me and send my shadow out as a spy," Anthy spat. "But I cannot, _I cannot_ make Juri or Ruka fall in love with you."

Shiori took a step back, eyes wide. "But I...I didn't say..."

Anthy walked to where her glasses lay and stooped down, picking them up from the ground. Fortunately, the lenses weren't broken; lenses strong enough to mask a witch's sight were hard to find. "Any witch worth her salt knows how to read intention in the shade of a girl's eyes. You're an open book to me and a boring one at that." Before putting her glasses back on, she added, "Do you think tearing her down is going to build you up? Do you think having him at your beck and call will save your reputation?"

Shiori’s hands clenched and unclenched. "I want them to stop laughing at me. I want them to see that he was wrong! And as for her...she did something. She did something to _me_. I have dreams and they won't _stop_. Dreams about _her_ and dead birds and desks crushing me. I want them to stop!"

Anthy frowned, her glasses dangling in her hand. "So why don't you just ask me to stop them? The rumors and the dreams, I mean."

Shiori's knotted her hands in front of her and brought them up to her chin, as if she were praying. Her eyes glittered from behind the curtain of tangled hair that fell over them. "Because I want to hurt both of them as much as they've hurt me. You understand that, don’t you, Anthy?" 

Anthy studied the black rose in Shiori's heart, still thriving and growing and poisoning. She had thought that Utena had purified everyone but that obviously wasn't the case. "You'll have to do it some other way. I can't help you."

"But everyone loves you! Everyone wants you! I just want that over _them!_ "

The corner of Anthy's mouth quirked upward. "Don't be silly. Who would love a witch? What everyone loves is power and instead of growing it themselves, they're trying to steal the power that they think I have." Utena's face sprang into her mind and she shook her head. "No love potions here, no easy answers, just a witch playing games."

Shiori's hands dropped to her sides. "Then I'll tell everyone you're a witch! A real one! That you admitted to it!"

Anthy laughed. "Go ahead, Shiori. Good luck with the response you get."

"You-!" Shiori flew at Anthy again, but Anthy wasn't being the innocent Rose Bride. She ducked under Shiori's open hand, stepped calmly past her, and elbowed her sharply in the back. Shiori gasped and stumbled as Anthy turned around to study the poor girl.

Shiori regained her balance and looked over her shoulder, glaring. "You don’t understand, or else you'd help me."

"I don’t understand?" Anthy laughed again. "I don't understand being ridiculed? I don't understand being used? I don't understand wanting to hurt someone, getting revenge? The difference between you and me is that I'm not so stupid to think that magic can solve my problems." 

( _Because I have tried it a thousand times and it has always gone wrong._ )

Shiori's face twisted again. Shaking her head, Anthy decided enough was enough and that she had to put an end to this verbal farce. As Shiori moved forward to try and strike her, Anthy raised her arms, took a deep breath, and _pushed_.

* * *

Anthy picked up some pruning shears, humming. Shiori had left the greenhouse, face and mind blank. The girl would regain her senses in an hour or so, but without the fanatical notion that Himemiya Anthy could create a love potion. She would go back to her room, obsessively calling Tsuchiya Ruka’s cell phone.

A minute or so later, Utena entered the greenhouse with a cheerful greeting. "Himemiya! You're still inside on a beautiful day like today?"

Anthy smiled automatically, adjusting the glasses on her face. "The roses need tending, Utena-sama."

"Just like you, to be so kind." Utena ambled over. "Why was Shiori in here? I just saw her leaving as I was entering the courtyard."

"She...needed a favor. I couldn't help her." Anthy decided to leave it at that and hoped that Utena wouldn't question her further.

"A favor, huh?" Utena sighed. "I still feel really bad for her, after what happened with Ruka. It's too bad that we can't make everyone at Ohtori forget what happened. It's not fair to Shiori at all."

Anthy smiled again. Now, that was something that she _could_ do. She could conjure up a wind that would blow through the grounds, the halls, and wipe Ruka's public rejection of Shiori from everyone's minds. Akio wouldn't even fight her over it, since Shiori was such a minor player in his plans.

_But I won't,_ Anthy thought, cutting one of the roses under her hands with a firm snick of the shears. _Takatsuki Shiori isn't the only one who can be cruel._


End file.
